Let's discuss the New Residential Sales report for August 2024.

New Home Sales Details

New Home Sales: Sales of new single-family houses in August 2024 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 716,000. This is 4.7 percent (±10.6 percent) below the revised July rate of 751,000, but is 9.8 percent (±22.1 percent) above the August 2023 estimate of 652,000.

Sales Price: The median sales price of new houses sold in August 2024 was $420,600. The average sales price was $492,700.

For Sale Inventory and Months' Supply: The seasonally-adjusted estimate of new houses for sale at the end of August was 467,000. This represents a supply of 7.8 months at the current sales rate.

Note the margins of error in these sales numbers.

New Home Sales Since 1963 Details

New home sales are down 30.1 percent from October 2020

New home sales are up 38.0 percent from July 2022

New home sales are about where they were in March of 1973

It's pretty easy to spin the numbers however you want

Stage of Construction Details

Of the alleged 467,000 homes for sales 96,000 have not been started

105,000 are finished and the number is rising at the fastest rate since the Great Recession

365,000 homes are started or completed. This represents a builder commitment that's very hard to stop.

Increasing Inventory Notes (Lead Chart)

Most supply of completed homes since October 2009

Most supply of started or finished homes since May 2008

Counting vacant land, supply is the highest since March 2008